In a game filled with beanballs, Kyle Schwarber and Cole Hamels fueled a dominant win over the Rockies ending Colorado’s home game win streak. Schwarber launched his 14th home run in the win. Over his last 10 games owns a .325/.378/.700 slash line with three doubles, four home runs and 11 RBI with a .375 isolated power. Hamels fired seven shutout innings giving up six hits and a walk with nine strikeouts. He’s featuring his change-up which generated eight of his 17 swinging strikes among 93 pitches. Hamels also accrued 18 called strikes for a 37.6 called plus swinging strike (CSW) percentage. During his last 22 innings, Hamels has only yielded 11 hits, zero earned runs and four walks with 23 strikeouts.

Aging like fine wine, Justin Verlander turned in the night’s best CSW percentage (43 percent) with a career high in strikeouts:

Within his 15 strikeouts, Verlander produced 29 swinging strikes, 17 with his slider, and 14 called of his 100 pitches. All of his strikeouts occurred on swinging strikes marking the fifth such event since 2008 and Verlander set a Minute Maid Park record for strikeouts by a home pitcher.

Here’s other notable starting pitcher performances from Wednesday:

  • Merrill Kelly , Arizona: 93 pitches, 14 swinging strikes, 13 called, 29 CSW%. Kelly’s won his last three starts going at least seven innings in each of them with a tidy 18:2 K:BB over his last 22.1 innings. It’s been a roller coaster of a year for him, but he’s been terrific in this stretch.

  • Zach Eflin , Philadelphia: 82 pitches, 10 swinging strikes, 17 called, 32.9 CSW%. Tough luck loser to Kelly, Eflin logged eight innings giving up five hits, two earned runs and a walk with nine strikeouts.

  • Rick Porcello , Boston: 101 pitches, six swinging strikes, 23 called, 28.7 CSW%. There’s more than one way to get a quality start as Porcello lasted 6.2 innings allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out six.

  • Jordan Yamamoto , Miami: 90 pitches, seven swinging strikes, 17 called, 26.7 CSW%. Making his major league debut, Yamamoto fired seven shutout innings ceding three hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He mixed his pitches well and looked comfortable while Zac Gallen truthers remain stunned he did not get the call.

  • Shaun Anderson , San Francisco: 88 pitches, 10 swinging strikes, 13 called, 26.1 CSW%. Setting up as a home stream option, Anderson gets his second win giving up four hits, two earned runs and three walks with six strikeouts against the Padres.

Bullpen Notes: Vazquez in the eighth?

Pittsburgh warned about this in a report two days ago suggesting Felipe Vázquez could enter the most high leverage point of games, not necessarily exclusive to the ninth inning. It manifested itself on Wednesday with Vazquez taking the mound in the eighth inning on the road facing the top of the Braves order in a tied game. He kept the game tied with three strikeouts working around a walk and hit batter, but the Pirates eventually lost the game. Not sure if this makes sense, but Vazquez owners need to take note. Kyle Crick allowed only the second home run to a right handed batter since joining the Pirates, both to Austin Riley, resulting in his fourth blown save this year.

Here’s the rest of the high leverage events from Wednesday:

  • Blake Treinen fired a much needed clean ninth with two strikeouts in Tampa Bay. Of course, it happened with a four run lead. Once again, Lou Trivino served up three hits but escaped with a scoreless eighth inning.

  • Boston won on a walk-off walk giving Matt Barnes his third win. He walked one and struck out two in a scoreless ninth inning with Brandon Workman incurring a blown save in the eighth inning.

  • Toronto placed Ken Giles on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. Then handed a save chance to Daniel Hudson who pitched around a walk with three strikeouts in 1.1 innings for his first save this season. Joe Biagini struggled allowing two runs in the eighth inning, so it appears Hudson could get more chances if provided while Giles rests.

  • Save number 20 for Shane Greene , in Detroit’s 64th game to set a team record for fastest reaching the plateau. Greene also leads the American League in the category.

  • Ryan Pressly fired a clean eighth with two strikeouts preserving a tied game and Roberto Osuna navigated around two hits for a scoreless ninth in Houston.

  • Preserving a shutout win for Kelly, Greg Holland tossed a clean ninth striking out two for his 10th save.

  • Who will save Will Smith ? He notched his 16th save surviving loading the bases against San Diego. But, he’s 16-for-16 this year with a 0.76 WHIP and 38 strikeouts in 26.2 innings.

Hitter Highlights: Moose continues to rake

So many teams passed on Mike Moustakas in free agency the last two seasons, but he came up big again for Milwaukee in extra innings:

Moustakas finished 2-for-5 with his 21st home run, two RBI and a walk. He’s currently on pace for 50 home runs, 107 runs and RBI. Moose also has launched six home runs in only 36 at-bats this month.

Mired in a mini-slump, perhaps Austin Riley snapped it last night along with making some history:

Riley then got hit by a pitch leading off the 11th inning and scored the winning run on an Ozzie Albies walk-off double.

Ramón Laureano had himself a day in Tampa Bay hitting a grand slam along with stealing two bases for a tremendous smash and dash. Over his last 121 at-bats, Laureano owns a .306/.344/.529 slash with 19 runs, six home runs, 16 RBI and five steals.

Reds first baseman Joey Votto hit his sixth home run but left the game with back stiffness. He’s been playing through this, so his owners need to monitor this closely.

Rowdy Tellez hit his 10th home run, his second grand slam this season, sparking the Blue Jays to a victory. Also a good game for the juniors with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. going 2-for-4 with two RBI while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. racked up three hits with two runs, a double and an RBI.

Spurring the Orioles offense, Trey Mancini tripled and hit his 14th home run in a loss. Chance Sisco drove in two with a double, turned in his first multi-hit game and hit fourth as the designated hitter. His buy low window could expire soon.

Lost in the sauce of the Braves walk-off, Starling Marte hit his 10th home run, and third in his last three games. So far in June, Marte’s slashing .400/.426/.711 with nine runs, two doubles, four home runs, 10 RBI and two stolen bases in 45 at-bats.

Daniel Vogelbach set a career high with four hits including his 17th home run. He’s raised his average 20 points over his last nine contests and on pace for 39 home runs in 141 games.

While Minnesota’s offense gets most of the attention, Byron Buxton continues to produce below the radar. He hit his ninth home run tying the game in the ninth and pacing towards a 22 home run with 25 stolen base season. And, he’s hitting .271 in the process.

Last, but not least, Garrett Cooper fell short of Miami’s first cycle, but went 3-for-5 with two runs, a triple, his sixth home run and four RBI. Since returning to the team on May 11th, Cooper’s appeared in 27 games with 21 runs, six home runs, 20 RBI, 13 walks, slashed .320/.405/.530 and recorded a 45.5 hard hit percentage. And he’s free in most leagues.

What to watch for:

A split slate of games with an early afternoon tilt between the Pirates and Braves with the bullpens fatigued. Joe Musgrove will try to start once again and will there be fireworks with Josh Donaldson ? Stay tuned. Julio Teheran will try to stay hot at home as well.

In the evening, Zack Greinke will take the mound in Washington. David Price will try to salvage a split with Texas and Jacob deGrom faces the Cardinals at home.

With reports of Detroit open for trades, plenty of scouts will be on hand to see if the hefty price to add Matt Boyd will be worth it as he faces the Royals on the road. Timing can be everything.

Be sure to stay with Fantasy Alarm to remain ahead of the competition as the fantasy action continues to heat up.

 

Statistical Credits:

BaseballSavant.com

Fangraphs.com

MLB.com - Game Notes